“Once it was clear everything was going to stay stable on stage, I didn’t feel any concern at all to go out and perform,” Cliff recalled.

Happily, the weather will be much more temperate when he performs Friday at the Del Mar Racetrack.

The only reggae artist besides Bob Marley to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this legendary Jamaican singer-songwriter was varely 15 when he launched his music career in 1963. He scored his first chart-topping hit in his homeland the same year with “Hurricane Hattie,” a Big Easy-styled shuffle.

“Growing up, I listened to a lot of blues and R&B from New Orleans — Smiley Lewis, Fats Domino and Ray Charles — as a well as jazz and music from Cuba,” Cliff said.

"When I heard 'Chain Gang' by Sam Cooke, I was very inspired. It was the same with Ray Charles doing 'Born to Lose' and Fats Domino doing 'Be My Guest.' All of those songs represent different areas of songwriting and they are all inspiring to me."

In 1969, Cliff scored one of the first international reggae hits with “Wonderful World, Beautiful People.” He followed it with 1970’s “Vietnam,” which Bob Dylan is said to have hailed as the greatest protest song he’d ever heard. Cliff has worked tirelessly since then, recording and touring. In 1972, he starred in the classic Jamaican film, “The Harder They Come.”

His new album, the old school reggae-celebrating “Rebirth,” was produced by guitarist-singer Tim Armstrong of veteran SoCal punk band Rancid. Armstrong accompanied Cliff at Coachella, but is not on tour with him.

“I knew of Tim through Joe Strummer of The Clash, who was a friend of mine, and I felt I would really like to talk to him,” Cliff said. "We spoke on the phone and I liked the way it felt. We got together in the studio (in Los Angeles) and it felt even better. We were initially going to do an EP, but it went so well that we did a whole album.

“Tim has a great sense and knowledge of reggae, and I think that comes across on the album."

Bonus Q&A with Jimmy Cliff

QUESTION: Do you still perform (your early hits) “Daisy Got Me Crazy” and “Hurricane Hattie?”

Cliff: Well, that would depend if the band knows it and also depends on the amount of time I have on stage. If I have a two-hour show, I could do them (solo) on my guitar, because I know them.

Q: When you started your career as a teenager in Kingston in 1962, were you thinking you’d have a long-term career or did you just expect it would last a few years?

Cliff: I was just thinking something that would last a few years.

Q: By the end of the 1960s, you were evolving into a politically and socially conscious artist with such songs as "Vietnam," which Bob Dylan singled out for praise. Where did your sense of social consciousness come from? Your parents, or someone or something else?

Cliff: My father was an avid reader and many people would go to him for advice, social and political advice, and I’d listen to him giving them advice. So I kind of grew up with a social conscience and political awareness and it became a part of me as I became a more established artist.

Q: Is there a song of yours that you thought represented an early breakthrough, in terms of injecting social consciousness into your music?

Cliff: On the same album that "Vietnam" was on (1969's "Jimmy Cliff") was the song that became an international hit for me, "Wonderful World, Beautiful People," which was an expression of how I would like to see the world, so it was reflecting my global aspirations.

Q: Your starring role in the classic 1972 movie "The Harder They Come" helped introduce you, reggae music and Jamaican culture and life to an even broader global audience. How autobiographical was the character your portrayed in the movie?

Cliff: What I was doing then was just expressing my sensitivity, my feelings, about what was happening around me then, with the hope I was echoing the hopes of the people. I was very encouraged to see the feelings I had then were getting noticed, not just in the moment, but for the long term. As a result I'm still doing it on my latest album now.

Q: Your new album, "Rebirth," was produced by Tim Armstrong of Rancid. It has a pronounced, old-school reggae sound and approach.

Cliff: It gave me an opportunity to do an album like that, which I wanted to do, to complete a chapter in my carer that I had not completed. I wasn't intending to go (back) to the roots of what I'm doing now. It was only after I heard that initial track I did with Tim, and said: "Wow, that is the way to go." I heard the sound of it, the feel of it, the rhythm of it, and it was like what we used to do back then. I didn’t know this sound could still be captured today.

Q: What chapter are you referring to that you wanted to complete?

Cliff: When I did the (“Jimmy Cliff”) album with “Vietnam” on it, I didn’t continue in that vein, so I went to Muscle Shoals (Alabama) and made (the 1971 album) “Another Cycle” (at the Stax Records studio). But I always felt that (older) style of reggae -- that sound, that feeling (from “The Harder They Come”) -- was something I really wanted to complete. People were saying: ‘Wow, why didn’t you continue in that same vein?' So when the opportunity came (last year with Armstrong), I did it

Q: Why not do it sooner?

Cliff: Because of my artistic, creative way of wanting to do new things, different from what I did before. So when I had opportunity to go to Muscle Shoals – and I was living in England at the time and listening to Stax Records, I jumped at the opportunity.

Q: Do song ideas come to you now the same way they did 40 years, or in a different way?

Cliff: The same as it used to. I'll be walking in a car park (parking lot), or if I happen to go to London and take the underground, something just pops into my head and I come out singing. Sometimes in a dream, I hear a melody. If I can remember the melody when I wake up, I try to sing it over and over.

Q: Can you give an example of a song that came to you in a dream?

Cliff: Not on this album. But in the past, a song like "Many Rivers to Cross," the idea came along that way. I dreamed about it, the idea, and then the song only became completed on my way to the studio one day, when I was gong to complete an album, like in 15 minutes and the song just came (pouring) right out. I wish I could get more (that way).

Q: Have you ever considered writing your autobiography?

Cliff: Yes, quite a few people have asked and I have thought about it myself. But the reason I’ve not embarked on it yet is I have a few more important things to complete in my career.

Q: Such as?

Cliff: First, I wanted to be an actor, before singing, and I still love that area of the arts, and I’ve not accomplished what I want to do in that area. Also, I think I still have a lot of great songs I want to write. And until I accomplish those things, I don’t feel I want to indulge in my autobiography. Because I think the things yet to come will be very inspiring to humanity.

Q: You noted that you would like to do more acting in films. Given what a big hit "The Harder They Come" was, didn't you get more film offers back then?

Cliff: That’s a really good point. Some offers did come, but the scripts weren’t really something that – 10, 15, 20 years down the line -- I would have been proud of. Maybe I would have made some money at the time, but I’m the kind of artist who places great importance on the art and don’t do things only for the sake of making money. So I did get some offers, but not up to the level I would like to be proud of.

Q: Do you have any movie possibilities now?

Cliff: I have three scripts on the table and I’m involved in the writing of all three, including the sequel to “The Harder They Come,” but we’re not all satisfied it’s in the right place. And I have the two other scripts. So, by the spring, we hope to be going into production with one of them, and maybe one of them may involve (Olympics track champion and fellow Jamaican) Usain Bolt, but not “The Harder They Come.”

Q: Do you know Bolt?

Cliff: Well, just through passing glances.

Q: Were you a good runner as a kid?

Cliff: I’m glad you asked me that. I love athletics! I was a good pole vaulter, high jumper, long distance runner and swimmer, and I earned medals in all of those.

Q: Well, that could be a metaphor for what you’ve accomplished in your career, even if you didn’t literally swim across the many rivers you crossed.

Cliff: (Laughs) Yeah.

Q: In 2010, you became only the second Jamaican artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cliff: I felt good about it that, that I have contributed to a music form called reggae that is Jamaican and not American, nor British, not European, not African, but maybe a combination of all of those. To be inducted into a prestigious American institution for music I contributed to, I felt really gratified for that.

Q: What Jamaican artist do you think should be inducted next?

Cliff: Maybe Desmond Dekker. He did some good works. There are some new songwriters on the scene (in Jamaica), but I think they've yet to make their mark, internationally, and that is one of the qualifications (for induction).